California woman who stabbed lover 108 times in psychotic weed attack appeals conviction – despite being sentenced to NO jail time
A California woman who stabbed a man she had briefly dated more than 100 times while in a drug-induced dissociative state is appealing her conviction despite not receiving any jail time.
Bryn Spejcher, 32, was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in December 2023 for the killing of 26-year-old Chad O’Melia. She was sentenced the following month to two years of probation and 100 hours of community service.
In court, Spejcher did not dispute allegations that she stabbed O’Melia 108 times with multiple knives while she was high on cannabis.
Prosecutors initially charged her with second-degree murder, but that charge was reduced when Spejcher determined he was “acutely psychotic” during the wave of violence.
Despite not having spent any time behind bars, DailyMail.com can reveal that Spejcher’s lawyers have filed an appeal in her case, arguing that her drunkenness was ‘involuntary’ and the result of O’Melia’s ‘fraud and deception ‘.
If they succeed in appealing the conviction, the 32-year-old’s significantly light sentence could be reduced even further.
Lawyers for 32-year-old Bryn Spejcher have filed an appeal in her case, in which she was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in December 2023.
Spejcher was sentenced to two years of probation and 100 hours of community service after fatally stabbing 26-year-old Chad O’Melia while high on cannabis
Spejcher did not dispute the attack on O’Melia, but claimed she was ‘forced’ to smoke the pot that caused her to hear voices urging her to kill him
Spejcher attacked O’Melia in his Thousand Oaks apartment after he took a few puffs from his bong and suffered a psychotic episode in May 2018.
“She thought she was dead,” a prosecutor explained during the trial. “She had an out-of-body experience.
“She could see her own dead body, and she could hear voices, emergency room doctors performing CPR, her family, other voices, unknown voices, telling her that in order to bring herself back to life, she had to kill Chad O.” Melia should kill. ‘
Spejcher grabbed three kitchen knives and stabbed the 26-year-old in the body, puncturing his heart, lungs and vital arteries in his neck.
Despite characterizing herself as a “dog lover,” Spejcher then stabbed her dog and repeatedly stabbed an eight-inch bread knife into her own face and neck as she crouched near O’Melia’s body.
She only stopped when the police arrived and hit her with a baton.
Although both the defense and prosecution agreed that the violence was the result of intoxication, the prosecution portrayed Spejcher as a partygoer looking to get high, while her defense argued that she was forced to use the drug.
Under California law, a person is considered responsible for their actions while impaired unless the intoxication was involuntary.
Spejcher stabbed the 26-year-old 108 times in the heart, lungs and neck before turning the knife on her dog and herself
The prosecutor portrayed her as a partygoer looking to get high, but Spejcher claimed she felt “intimidated” by O’Melia and “feared the consequences” if she refused to use his hookah.
O’Melia’s father, Sean, filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the California woman in 2020, but it was put on hold until the trial was completed
Spejcher told DailyMail.com that their relationship ‘had no label’, despite being characterized in the press as boyfriend and girlfriend
For the first time since her conviction, Spejcher told DailyMail.com that O’Melia had ‘pressured’ her to smoke cannabis.
“I felt intimidated by him,” the 34-year-old claimed. “If something felt personal to him, even if it really didn’t, he would have a short fuse.”
Spejcher said his “outbursts and uncontrollable emotions” were so extreme that she “feared the consequences” if he refused to use his hookah on the night of his death.
She explained how O’Melia ‘prepared’ cannabis in the device before claiming she forced her to inhale it.
‘He said, ‘Hurry up. Now breathe… Do it real quick, go, go,” she recalled.
“Yes, I physically inhaled it. So we are both responsible.’
During the trial, Spejcher claimed to have never experienced a ‘high’ before.
When she took a few puffs and told O’Melia she didn’t feel anything, he reportedly said, “Oh, let’s make this really intense for you.”
An expert witness said the violent attack suggested the marijuana she smoked was much stronger than other types, but O’Melia’s father, Sean, disagreed.
He claimed that Spejcher had not been coerced; rather, she knew what she was doing and ended his son’s life in a vicious and premature manner.
Sean O’Melia filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Spejcher in 2020, which was stayed until criminal proceedings were completed.
When the pair met at a dog park in early 2018, Spejcher claimed they “got along great.”
She had recently moved to the area for a new role in the audiology department at the University of California, Los Angeles.
“We just laughed about all kinds of things and we’re both sarcastic. “I have brothers and a lot of male friends, so I know how to talk and interact with a man,” she explained.
Spejcher also disputed the characterization of their relationship as boyfriend and girlfriend.
“There was no label on it,” she said, admitting that their connection was initially romantic.
The California woman insisted she had used cannabis “less than ten times” in her life, while O’Melia was a daily user.
In court documents reviewed by DailyMail.com, O’Melia’s roommate, Vinicius De Oliveira, testified: “Whenever Chad was home, he was high.”
De Oliveira also recalled how O’Melia persuaded him to get high for the first time two months before his death – with the same hookah he offered to Spejcher.
The pot made him feel like he was “dying,” De Oliveira said, adding: “My heart was beating really fast. The wall and the faces were quite moving.”
He allegedly begged O’Melia and another friend to take him to a hospital, but they just laughed.